WLOA

Infobox Radio station
name = WLOA


city = Farrell, Pennsylvania
area = Sharon, Pennsylvania, Hermitage, Pennsylvania, Youngstown, Ohio
branding = Classic Country 940 and 1470
slogan =
airdate = October 3, 1954 (as WFAR)
frequency = 1470 (kHz)
format = Classic Country
power = 1,000 watts (day)
500 watts (night)
class = B
owner = Beacon Broadcasting
website =
callsign_meaning = Our Lady Of the Angels (former Catholic format)

WLOA (1470 AM) is a radio station in Farrell, Pennsylvania.

WLOA currently has a classic country format with WGRP 940 in Greenville, Pa. and both are Mercer County outlets for Pittsburgh Pirates baseball.

WLOA is owned, along with WANR in Warren, Ohio and WGRP and WEXC-FM in Greenville, Pennsylvania, by Beacon Broadcasting. Beacon is headed by Warren steel supply magnate Harold Glunt.

History

The station first signed on the air as WFAR on October 3, 1954. The station was founded by Sanford A. Schafitz, a native of the Youngstown area. Schafitz also started up WWIZ in Lorain, Ohio and was involved in the launching of WXTV-TV in Youngstown a few years earlier.

After becoming WMGZ by 1986, the station has undergone a number of callsign changes—to WOJY in 1989; to WRQQ on March 18, 1991; to WICT on March 29, 1996; to WPAO on March 3, 1997; and to WLOA on February 18, 2003. Formats ranged from top 40 to oldies to easy listening music, with a number of religious formats along the way.

WPAO was sold by D&E Broadcasting to Holy Family Communications, which changed the call sign to WLOA on February 18, 2003 (to complement Holy Family Communications' other Catholic radio stations) and which took over operations on March 4, 2003, making it the 60th Catholic radio station on the air in the United States.

WLOA was purchased by Glunt's Beacon Broadcasting on July 7, 2005, and the station became part of a three-station oldies format trimulcast (along with WGRP) that originated from Warren's WANR under the "Family Friendly Oldies" banner - but would break away to air assorted sports play-by-play. This lasted until December, 2006, when the sports format was installed on WLOA and WGRP. In April, 2008, WGRP briefly broke away from simulcasting WLOA, and began to air classic country music with WLOA rejoining WGRP a few months later in September of 2008.

External links

*AMQ|WLOA
*AML|WLOA
*AMARB|WLOA